Life in the Hills

Muri and I moved to California in 1971, at first living in an apartment complex in the San Gabriel Valley.  It was convenient to my work but the valley was prone to periods of awful, eye-burning smog.  Besides, we’d come to California ready to have a house of our own.   Our search gradually gravitated south to Orange County where most of the new construction was going on.  Every weekend was spent navigating our way (without GPS!) to new neighborhoods and walking though model after model.  Some were too expensive (actually, many were too expensive).  Some were too small or didn’t have the features we wanted.  One was actually too smelly.  It was a beautiful house, but on the day we went to make an offer, the weather was wet … and it became obvious that the entire development had been built on a former dairy farm.   Many of the houses that were out of our price range were in Anaheim Hills, a planned, lower density community distributed in the hills near the Cleveland National Forest, but we found a nice house we loved on a smaller hill in Yorba Linda, CA.  It was our happy home for 31 years, but in 2001, business was very good so we moved to a larger house at the top of Anaheim Hills.

There are many advantages to living in the Hills.  The neighborhoods are quiet and nicely landscaped, lined with houses ranging from modest two-stories like ours to what my brother-in-law, Norm, calls McMansions.   There are many open areas and canyons that are maintained in a semi-wild state by the Homeowner’s Association, giving the place a more rural feel than most of Socal.  On a clear day, particularly in the winter, the view can be phenomenal … but rest assured, there aren’t many days as clear as this one.

Being a hill-dweller has disadvantages, too.  For one, when the Santa Ana winds blow in from the desert, we get them in spades, filling our yard with debris and knocking over plants.  During the winds, I often wear ear plugs at night so the howling winds don’t keep me awake.  Worse, our proximity to the National Forest and the strong winds make us susceptible to wildfires.  In the years we’ve been here, we’ve been evacuated three times for several days each time.   But still, we love our House in the Hills.

Of course, you just know my Inner Curmudgeon and I have a pet peeve … and that would be the drivers.  Anaheim Hills is an affluent community full of late model luxury cars and trucks … and every driver seems determined to show that his ride is the fastest.  The speed limit on the mile and a half hill up to our house is 40 miles an hour but if I go any slower than 50, I’m sure to be passed by a Porsche, tailgated by a Tesla or nearly flattened by a Ford F-150 with four thousand dollar rims (don’t you just love alliteration?).  And the odds are 3:1 that the driver is either on the phone or texting.  The vortex of this motor vehicle mayhem is the single shopping center on the hill.   The parking lot can be entered only from the uphill direction, so cars enter the lot at breakneck speeds … and cars leaving the lot that want to go downhill need to cross four lanes of the Anaheim Hills version of LeMans to get to the u-turn lane.   The parking lot is crowded at any time of day or night and the law of the jungle prevails … the survival of the fastest.   Yesterday, I stopped at the ATM machine.  As I was backing out of my parking spot, a blue corvette honked.  I looked back to see him waving me out because he wanted my spot, so I continued but a Lexus SUV coming the other way blasted her horn without slowing down.  I had to dodge four cars backing out of parking spaces to get to the exit and I conscientiously waited five minutes for a break in the traffic, which got me honked at by the truck behind me.   Some bozo in a Beemer still flipped me off because he thought I cut him off, which was quite a feat since he was holding his iPhone in his other hand.  By the time I got out of the lot and headed home, I was ready for a Xanax.

So, here it is, Top Sites Tuesday and I need to come up with Two Thoughts on Tuesday.  Thought Number One: I love Life in the Hills.  Really.  I’m not complaining.  Well, my Inner Curmudgeon is … I’m just observing.  And Thought Number Two:  Wouldn’t we all be happier if we just slowed down a bit?   If you’ve got a minute, tell me the pet peeve in your neighborhood in my comments section.  And if you’ve got a second, push my button … gently … to make me Number One on Top Sites Tuesday #236.

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